Monday, May 7, 2018

Coffee Plantations 101 in Indonesia

Coffee plants are still something that a lot of
farmers like in horticulture plantation. Coffee beans selling price is quite
expensive thus making it a nice and promising business prospect. In several
areas in Indonesia like Gayo, Aceh and Liwa, Lampung, the number of coffee
farmers are still growing.

When I visited West Lampung, or Liwa to be exact, I
could see hectares of coffee plantations and they usually belonged to one
family or a group of farmers.

The variety of coffee that is most popular and widely
planted in Liwa is robusta coffee because locals say that the taste is more
intense than other varieties. On each harvest, they can get at least 20 tons of
coffee beans per hectare depends on the weather, climate, and caring process.

Robusta Coffee in Coffee Plantation in Liwa, Lampung/Indonesia.

Even though robusta is the most popular choice in the
area, some farmers do still plant Arabica ones because the prospect is also
isn’t bad in the market.

After harvesting their coffee beans, farmers usually
let them dry out naturally under the sun. They spread the beans out on cemented
ground and let the sun do its work. After this process, some farmers pound
their beans manually using pestle. After, they roast their beans and get them
to change color to black. Those roasted coffee beans then will be ground using
a machine to get nice, fine coffee grounds.